Cynthia writes:
Just wanted to report that I just listened to a 40-minute interview on WNYC in NY with Christopher Lee, full of articulate musings on his career and laced with excerpts from the LOTR score. Wasn’t able to tape it, and missed the first 10 minutes, but here are a few tidbits:
He said he “thinks” Peter Jackson is in NY (today is the book signing in Union Square) and that he is going to be seeing him tomorrow (Saturday).
He just had a drink with the opera star Samuel Ramey, a bass whom he admires very much. Interestingly, Lee said he comes from a family of opera singers and studied singing early on. The legendary tenor Jussi Bjoerling heard him singing at a tavern and got him to audition for the Stockholm Opera. He didn’t have the funds to stay in Stockholm and study, so he ended up playing all those wonderful villains and using that voice in a different way.
His great ambition, still unrealized, is to play Merlin.
He belongs to 3 stunt men’s unions by virtue of being a terrific swordsman (his father was an expert in the military) and often used to do his own stunts til he realized it took work away from stunt men.
He will turn 80 on May 27.
He met J. R. R. Tolkien at the Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford once when he was there with friends, and said he “practically knelt” to him.
He spoke very warmly about the courage of New Line in taking on the LOTR films, saying they were “the only company that had the guts” to do it and is “glad they’re being rewarded. They deserve it”.
Posted in:
Share:
Ringer Spy Andrew sends along these great video clips (Quicktime) from the cricket match where PJ got the crowd all wired up and recorded their voices!
Peter got them to speak the dark language of Mordor, stamp their feet, and yell really loud! [More]
Posted in:
Share:
Maegwen provides TORn readers with a comprehensive report from today’s Barnes & Noble event in NYC. !!!!SPOILERS!!!! [More]
Posted in:
Share:
Yes, ’tis true. Our beloved provider of Tolkien toys and chicken tenders will go up on the auction block very very soon. Will we still get our toys next year?? Who knows? We will keep you updated. [More]
Posted in:
Share:
There’s a quick interview with the wizard on NY Post’s gossip column. It mentions that Sir Ian will be unveiling a portrait of himself by Clive Smith, in England tonight. [More] Thanks to FrenchFry for the link.
Speaking of Sir Ian, the SF Chronicle reported that he’d accepted an invitation to be grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 30. “San Francisco is where I decided to come out in 1988,” said McKellen. “It’s high time I came back to thank everybody.”
Posted in:
Share:
Arien just wrote in to report on the NY LOTR event.
“Hi! Just got back from the Q&A Discussion event at Barnes and Noble in NYC. It was really great and all too short. I’ll post a longer report soon, but here are some quick hits that are very very interesting… WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
– The TTT trailer will be added on to FOTR on March 22nd! In one month! 😀
-Shelob will be in ROTK, not TTT.
-There is NO Scouring of the Shire. PJ stated that the little scene in Galadriel’s Mirror was the “homage” to it.
-The Gollum/Frodo/Sam relationship will be “intensified.”
That’s all I remember off the top of my head for now.”
Posted in:
Share:
